I was recently on the Grit Daily Startup Show podcast where host Sebastian Rusk dives into the world of startups, specifically businesses doing great things in the digital space. In this episode, we talked about Content at Scale — our backstory, successes and failures, and how the platform was able to grow so quickly in such a short time.

One of the core components of startup success is having a strong product. And Content at Scale is in a class of its own when it comes to long-form content. No other writing software out there offers a complete package — from research to publishing — that’s completely driven by artificial intelligence.

Why the focus on long-form content?

Because long-form content drives 198.75% more revenue and brings in 62x more ideal customers than short-form content.

In the podcast, I also shared some of the secrets on how to create effective SEO content that will drive more traffic to your website, which you’ll find in this blog post.

Table of Contents:

• Content at Scale: From Concept to Launch
• How You Can Streamline Content Creation With AI
• What’s in The Box?
• How to Generate Articles That Convert
• Repurpose Your Video Into Long-Form Blog Posts
• The Drawbacks of AI Content — and How We Fixed Them
  • Lack of Creativity
  • Inability to Understand Context and Tone
  • Risk of Plagiarism
• Integrating AI into Your Workflow
• Tips on How to Create Consistently Good Content
• Conclusion

Content at Scale: From Concept to Launch

Content at Scale began as an idea way back in 2008 when we were trying to figure out how to scale our digital marketing services.

Remember those old article spinners? We tried them all but the output was so terrible that we ended up rewriting everything.

Fast forward to 2014, I launched my first SaaS company called LeadFuze which was an outbound sales tool focused on content.

Content marketing has always worked for me but the idea of scaling that was scary and incredibly expensive. You don’t know when the ROI is coming, what type of content is going to rank, and when that will drive traffic.

Three years ago, when GPT-2 came out, we thought this might finally be the technology that we could leverage into a scalable solution.

By December 2021, we had started the first AI content agency where we offered AI-written, human-edited content as a service with a plan of growing the platform eventually.

We hired around 40 writers to edit what the AI wrote, and the service immediately brought in $30,000 a month in revenue right out of the gate. 

But just like any startup, we experienced growing pains.

We realized the app just wasn’t ready. It was ugly, it had no UI, and our editors eventually went back to being writers as they had to rewrite a lot of the content that came out of AI.

Throughout this experience, we had to let go of 36 of our 40 writers because they, too, did not deliver the quality that we wanted.

That’s when we decided to just focus on the product and scrap the service side of it. We needed the platform to be able to write very good long-form SEO-driven content that could go right on somebody’s blog.

And by September 2022, we finally launched Content at Scale.

Now we’re helping hundreds of businesses scale their content with minimal effort — and money.

How You Can Streamline Content Creation with AI

Artificial intelligence has made its mark on various industries, more so in content marketing. With machine learning algorithms that understand human language patterns and user intent, these advanced tools can generate high-quality articles within minutes.

Looking to produce large volumes of well-written, SEO-driven, long-form articles at a fraction of the cost? This is where Content at Scale shines.

If you’re still doing it the traditional way, you probably have an army of writers brainstorming topics, doing research, preparing blog outlines, and writing the actual blog post. If you’re outsourcing, you have to put together a brief detailing each of these steps and send them to your offshore writers — with no guarantee that the assignments will be completed in time.

Content at Scale takes care of all of that. From research to writing the first draft, the app automates the entire process so all you have to do is put on the finishing touches and hit “Publish.”

What’s in The Box?

When you sign up for Content at Scale, you immediately get access to its dashboard where you can create hundreds of long-form articles for different projects.

The app is very easy to use. Just click “Add Content” and enter your keyphrase (or upload a .csv file of your keywords) to create a new blog post. Wait a few minutes and you’ll see your long-form article added to the queue, ready for editing.

Most of these articles are publish-ready. The AI automatically generates a title, meta description, URL slug, introduction, table of contents, subheaders, bullet lists, key takeaways, and a call to action — in a structure and format that’s ready to go.

Unlike other AI writing assistants, Content at Scale lets you edit the text right within the app so you can fine-tune all of these elements according to your brand voice.

You can even add images and embed tweets and videos without having to learn code.

And you get SEO tools for free! On the right sidebar is an optimization tool where you can see your current SEO score, word count, and the number of links and media elements in your content. Just below that is a keyword list and checklist to help you improve your score.

On top of all that, you get Copyscape Premium and our proprietary AI detector tool right within the app.

Lastly, Content at Scale syncs directly with your WordPress backend. You can even publish posts to WordPress without ever leaving the Content at Scale app.

How to Generate AI Long-Form SEO Content That Converts

A key feature that sets Content at Scale apart from other platforms is its ability to source real-time data during the article generation process. The machine crawls Google to find top-ranking pages within your niche and extract essential data points such as popular keywords, facts, and figures – all necessary ingredients for crafting compelling long-form articles.

When writing your content, the system automatically links it to a related article on your blog and includes external links to credible sources so you know it is 100% backed by research. These links not only help with SEO but also provide readers with additional resources to explore further.

Repurpose Your Videos into Long-Form Blog Posts

Here’s one feature that has gotten all our clients excited since we released Content at Scale 2.0 in early April.

You can now turn your high-performing YouTube videos into long-form informational articles. Our advanced natural language processing (NLP) algorithms are able to analyze your video and generate engaging written content based on it for a whole new audience.

And you can do this with podcasts too!

The Drawbacks of AI Content — and How We Fixed Them

While AI writing tools have become increasingly popular, they do come with a few limitations. We have addressed some of these issues and continue to fine-tune our system to deliver the best product possible.

Lack of Creativity

One of the biggest criticisms of AI-generated content is that it lacks creativity. While these tools can certainly help writers produce articles quickly, they do rely on pre-existing templates or formulas to create their content. As a result, the output may sound robotic and lack personality.

Our President, Julia McCoy, has created a solution to combat this. Called the CRAFT framework, it’s designed to guide your human editor on how to make AI content more humanlike so that it resonates with your audience.

Inability to Understand Context and Tone

An important aspect of effective writing is understanding context and tone. Unfortunately, many AI writing assistants struggle with this task. They may misinterpret sarcasm or humor, leading to awkward phrasing or inappropriate language.

This is where the “R” of our CRAFT framework comes in.

Optimizing your AI content gives it a more natural tone, ensures proper language usage, and makes it more scannable— which leads to a better reading experience.

While the machine does a pretty good job of optimizing content for search engines, you know your target audience better than any tool. This is why you should never publish AI content before reviewing it with human eyes.

Risk of Plagiarism

Another concern with using AI-powered content creation tools is the risk of plagiarism. Some programs scrape existing web pages for information and then repackage it into new articles without proper attribution or citation.

As mentioned earlier, Content at Scale 2.0 is now automatically adding backlinks to cite proper sources, and its built-in Copyscape scanner ensures that every article it puts out is 100% plagiarism-free.

Integrating AI into Your Workflow

Adopting artificial intelligence into your workflow does not mean replacing your entire content team. It just makes the work far easier than relying solely on human writers. 

The key is making AI work alongside humans to generate high-quality content that is contextually relevant while still maintaining a unique voice.

To achieve optimal results, start by providing clear instructions for the AI tool. This includes specifying the tone of voice, word count, and keyword context. You can even modify the blog outline that the AI wrote for you if you think it missed something or if the flow needs improvement.

When the initial draft is ready, review it carefully and implement our CRAFT framework as you make the necessary tweaks to your final draft.

Want to learn every step involved in our C.R.A.F.T. framework? You’re in the right place. To learn more about AIO and C.R.A.F.T, read our individual guides:

• C – a full guide on cutting the fluff
• R – a full guide on optimizing your content for SEO
• A – a full guide on adding blog images and visuals
• F – a full guide on how to fact-check
• T – a full guide on how to trust-build in your content

Additionally, subscribe to our blog, watch our C.R.A.F.T. and AIO tutorials on our YouTube channel, and read this blog to understand the AIO model.

Tips on How to Create Consistently Good Content

• Maintain a regular publishing schedule: To build brand authority and improve search engine rankings, it’s essential to consistently publish high-quality long-form SEO articles on your website or blog. This helps establish trust among readers while also signaling search engines that your site offers valuable information worth indexing.
• Leverage multiple platforms: Consider sharing content across various channels such as social media networks, guest posting on relevant industry blogs, and running email marketing campaigns to reach a wider audience.
• Optimize content for different formats: With the rise of mobile devices and voice search technology, it’s crucial to optimize your content for these formats. Make sure your articles are readable on smartphones or tablets, and incorporate schema markup for better visibility in voice search results.

Conclusion

Content at Scale focuses exclusively on generating long-form SEO content, and this has allowed us to grow so quickly.

If you’re a startup, a content agency, or even a freelance writer looking to make your job easier, Content at Scale can help.

Embracing AI for content creation can effectively streamline processes and increase productivity immensely. But AI is not a replacement for human creativity and expertise. Instead, it should be seen as a tool to augment the work of human content creators.

Sit with your team, explain the benefits of automation, and train them to use Content at Scale. 

It’s just natural for people to resist AI. But AI is here, and it’s here to stay. The only way to survive is to adapt.

Free Resources to Train Your Writers into AIO

I’ve been personally training agency owners and teams and helping them convert to the AIO way. Want these? You’re in luck – we’re giving them away.

Free Guide

We put together a full guide for AIO’s – an AIO writer’s worksprint, a job template to hire and find yours, links to our best tutorials and training, and more.

Want this awesome resource? It’s called the AIO Writer’s Worksprint. Download now for free.

Free Step-by-Step AIO Training Course

Additionally, after months of putting AIO and C.R.A.F.T. into action (over 40M words are produced each month by our users at Content at Scale, and our Done-for-You client side is another 500,000 words/month! Talk about AIO at scale 🤯 ) – we put together a step-by-step AIO C.R.A.F.T. tutorial.

Ideal for you, your writers, and any content creator ready to adapt to the CRAFT methodology and the AIO way.

Enjoy!

New to the idea of AIO and CRAFT? Read this to understand the innovation behind AIO. 

Want a written guide that has all the CRAFT steps from the YouTube video? Your wish is our content command. Step-by-step AIO writing tutorial, blog version.